L.A. mayoral candidates explain their approaches on housing

At a time when many residents are grappling with foreclosures and rising rental costs have far outpaced growth in their incomes,...

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December video game retail sales drop 22 percent

NEW YORK (AP) — U.S. retail sales of video games and gaming systems fell 22 percent in December, capping a year of declining sales for the industry.Research firm NPD Group said Thursday that overall sales fell to $ 3.21 billion from $ 4.1 billion in December 2011. NPD estimates that sales of new game hardware, software and accessories account for about half of what consumers spend on gaming.Sales...

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New Jimi Hendrix Music to Premiere on ‘Hawaii Five-0′

LOS ANGELES (TheWrap.com) – “Hawaii Five-0″ is about to undergo the Jimi Hendrix experience.CBS’s hit cop drama will feature previously unreleased music from the late guitar legend Hendrix on a special episode airing Sunday, January 20, the network said Thursday.he episode – which revolves around Chin Ho Kelly (portrayed by Daniel Dae Kim) being kidnapped and dropped off in Halawa Prison dressed as...

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City Room: Cuomo Declares Public Health Emergency Over Flu Outbreak

With the nation in the grip of a severe influenza outbreak that has seen deaths reach epidemic levels, New York State declared a public health emergency on Saturday, making access to vaccines more easily available.There have been nearly 20,000 cases of flu reported across the state so far this season, officials said. Last season, 4,400 positive laboratory tests were reported.“We are experiencing...

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Aaron Swartz, Internet Activist, Dies at 26

Aaron Swartz, a wizardly programmer who as a teenager helped develop code that delivered ever-changing Web content to users and who later became a steadfast crusader to make that information freely available, was found dead on Friday in his New York apartment.. An uncle, Michael Wolf, said that Mr. Swartz, 26, had apparently hanged himself, and that a friend of Mr. Swartz’s had discovered...

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Snowboarding craze cools as new designs make skiing easier

At the height of the nation's snowboard craze, Rod Rice was a so-called blazin' raisin — an older dude who loved to bomb the...

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Canada natives block Harper’s office, threaten unrest

OTTAWA (Reuters) – Aboriginal protesters blocked the main entrance to a building where Canada’s prime minister was preparing to meet some native leaders on Friday, highlighting a deep divide within the country’s First Nations on how to push Ottawa to heed their demands.The noisy blockade, which lasted about an hour, ended just before Prime Minister Stephen Harper and his aides met with about 20 native...

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TV anchorman Gregory won’t face charges over gun clip

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The District of Columbia has declined to prosecute NBC News anchor David Gregory for displaying an illegal high-capacity gun clip on a broadcast, a prosecutor said on Friday.District of Columbia Attorney General Irvin Nathan said his office would not seek to charge Gregory for showing the 30-round magazine on the December 23 broadcast of “Meet the Press” in part because it was...

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Flu Deaths Reach Epidemic Level, but May Be at Peak

Deaths in the current flu season have officially crossed the line into “epidemic” territory, federal health officials said Friday, adding that, on the bright side, there were also early signs that the caseloads could be peaking. Officials from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, speaking on a telephone news conference, again urged Americans to keep getting flu shots. At the same...

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Greece Votes to Raise Tax On Its Higher Earners

ATHENS — Greek lawmakers voted late Friday to increase taxes on middle- to high-income earners, self-employed professionals and businesses despite vehement objections by the political opposition and several ruling coalition deputies who said austerity-weary citizens should not be subjected to further pain. The change to the tax code, one of a long line of pledges Greece has made to international...

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Irvine City Council overhauls oversight, spending on Great Park

Capping a raucous eight-hour-plus meeting, the Irvine City Council early Wednesday voted to overhaul the oversight and spending...

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A Tale of 2 Strategies: The Twitter Genius of Chuck Grassley and Cory Booker

If you’re on Twitter and not following Sen. Chuck Grassley, you’re not using Twitter correctly.The Iowa Republican is known for his colorful and personal Twitter feed. Take a gander: He personally tweets about everything from the History Channel to “Obamacare” to an incident in which he hit a deer with his car  (“assume dead”). Grassley’s tweets take us along for a ride, one that’s often...

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Kimmel’s pot jokes earn invite from Calif. college

ARCATA, Calif. (AP) — Humboldt State University in California has invited Jimmy Kimmel to deliver the school’s commencement address after he joked about its marijuana research program.The host of “Jimmy Kimmel Live!” devoted three minutes of his late-night show in November to poking fun at the new program.Kimmel’s faux recruiting commercial said students could look forward to low-pressure careers...

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Children’s Flu Medicine in Short Supply

As influenza cases surge around the country, health officials say they are trying to stem a shortage of treatments for children. Pharmacies around the country have reported dwindling supplies of liquid Tamiflu, a prescription flu medicine that can ease symptoms if taken within 48 hours of their onset. The drug is available in capsules for adults and a liquid suspension for children and infants....

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2 Years Into Nokia Turnaround, Some Good News

Nearly two years ago, Stephen A. Elop, Nokia’s new chief executive, spoke of flaming ocean platforms and shark-infested waters to describe the problems he inherited as the company teetered on the brink of irrelevance. Mr. Elop painted the bleak outlook as he prescribed a radical cure for the Finnish mobile phone pioneer: The rejection of the company’s own Symbian smartphone operating system...

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Experts debate North Korea's missile goals and capability

WASHINGTON — When North Korea launched a small satellite into orbit last month for the first time, U.S. officials called it...

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Go Ahead, Keep Being Mean to Celebrities on Twitter

We realize there’s only so much time one can spend in a day watching new trailers, viral video clips, and shaky cell phone footage of people arguing on live television. This is why every day The Atlantic Wire highlights the videos that truly earn your five minutes (or less) of attention. Today:  RELATED: The Honey Boo Boo Nature Special; Everyone’s Favorite Sleepwalking MomWe usually don’t condone...

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Postponed by U.S. violence, “Gangster Squad” opening in theaters

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – After having its release delayed and scenes reshot because of last summer’s mass movie-theater killing in Aurora, Colorado, crime drama “Gangster Squad” finally hits theaters on Friday.“Gangster,” set in 1949 Los Angeles, stars Sean Penn as real-life gangster Mickey Cohen, who is ultimately brought down by a band of cops led by Josh Brolin and Ryan Gosling.After the Colorado...

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Pap Test May Prove Useful at Detecting More Types of Cancer, Study Suggests

The Pap test, which has prevented countless deaths from cervical cancer, may eventually help to detect cancers of the uterus and ovaries as well, a new study suggests. For the first time, researchers have found genetic material from uterine or ovarian cancers in Pap smears, meaning that it may become possible to detect three diseases with just one routine test. But the research is...

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James M. Buchanan, Economic Scholar, Dies at 93

James M. Buchanan, a scholar and author whose analyses of economic and political decision-making won the 1986 Nobel in economic sciences and shaped a generation of conservative thinking about deficits, taxes and the size of government, died on Wednesday in Blacksburg, Va. He was 93. Alex Tabarrok, the director of the Center for Study of Public Choice at George Mason University, which...

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Syria conflict blocks aid to 1 million needy, U.N. agency says

BEIRUT — The World Food Program said Tuesday that Syria's civil war has blocked the United Nations agency from delivering aid...

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